The televisions and radios must apply since Monday the rules concerning the times of speech of the candidates to the municipal elections and their supports, in order to guarantee pluralism on their antennas, reminded Tuesday the CSA which takes care of the good application of this device.
For these elections, a great principle applies, recalled Tuesday during a press point Michèle Léridon, adviser to the CSA in charge of these questions: it is equity, which stems from a battery of criteria of representativeness.
Room for maneuver
"This representativeness is calculated according to a bundle of indices that includes the results of previous municipal elections and other elections that have taken place since then, the campaign dynamics, the parliamentary groups in the Assembly," said the councilor.
A regime which offers margins of maneuver to broadcasters, much less strict than that which applies during presidential elections where it is equality of speaking time, more difficult to implement, which prevails. In addition, for municipal elections, speaking time is calculated over the whole of the six weeks preceding the first round (which leaves time for the audiovisual media to rebalance), and during the interval turns, during which the counters are reset.
No "stick politics"
It is up to the chains and stations to make their own calculations, commune by commune, for the metropolitan area of Lyon (which constitutes a distinct district) as well as on a national scale (for the remarks which do not relate to a precise district). Including for members of the executive when they intervene in the campaign, especially those who are themselves candidates like Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, head of the list in Le Havre.
TVs and radios must declare weekly to the CSA where they are from February 17. These statements, which will be published by the regulator, will allow the gendarme of the media (who proceeds, in addition to his own scores thanks to a team of ten agents) to point out possible problems to them.
Since televisions and radios are well versed in this exercise and having no interest in being caught in default, this control process will be carried out in a climate of “dialogue, support and advice”, and not via “a stick politics ”, assures Michèle Léridon. With an activity that promises to be intense, many national and local media (including local TV channels) planning to organize debates between candidates.
Politics
Municipal 2020: Five questions around the candidacy of Edouard Philippe in Le Havre
Politics
Political nuances at the municipal level: The threshold of 3,500 inhabitants chosen by Christophe Castaner
- Media
- Elections
- municipal
- Speaking time